Imminent Danger: And How to Fly Straight Into It (33 page)

“Death to Rakor!” Varrin cried, grabbing a stool and smashing it into an opponent. The outmatched guard flew backward and collided with the mess hall’s serving counter, producing a sickening crunch.

“You idiot, you’re from Rakor!” Eris snapped.

He sent her an amused look and then ducked to avoid striker fire from the last three conscious Rakorsians. Eris raised her plasma rifle and let loose.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Two of the Rakorsians slammed into the wall, and the third looked dazed enough by the explosions to be effectively out of the battle.

“Kari! Watch it!” Varrin protested. “I’d prefer to keep my head on my shoulders if possible.”

“You’re alive, aren’t you?”

Varrin sighed. “Come on, let’s get going. I’m pretty sure that after this little battle, Kratis would have to be a complete idiot to not notice us.”

“Why haven’t they sounded the alarm? I mean, we’ve been on their ship for at least thirty minutes.”

“Oh, I’m sure someone did.” He shrugged. “But I knocked them out before they could report our location. Rakorsian warships don’t have security cameras—they assume they’re too formidable to be boarded by enemies—so they can’t locate us that way either.”

BOOM.

The ship rocked again. “I don’t know whether I should be pleased or annoyed that the Ssrisk betrayed Kratis,” Varrin mused.

“Hey, as long as it distracts Kratis from capturing us before we get to the comm department, I’m ecstatic.”

“It’s comm
deck
. This isn’t a shopping center.”

Eris rolled her eyes. “Fussy, aren’t you?”

As Eris and Varrin stood in a deserted corridor waiting for one of the ship’s lifts, they heard footsteps pounding toward them.
Hurry, hurry, hurry,
Eris begged the elevator. She saw Varrin looking around for a place to hide, but there were no open doors or side corridors in sight. “I always knew a slow elevator would be the death of me,” she moaned.

A squad of Rakorsians rounded the corner decked out in full battle regalia—blinding red body armor, demonic-looking helmets, and drawn swords crackling with electricity.

“Attack—” the leader began to shout, and then ended lamely with, “Prince Varrin?”

“These guys don’t look like regular guards,” Eris observed nervously.

“They’re Skin Slicers,” Varrin said. “I suggest we try
very
hard not to irritate them. Which means keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking.”

“What are Skin—mmmph!” Eris shot him a vicious look as he clapped a hand over her mouth.

“What did I say? Be quiet. Let a man handle this.”

Oooh, I am
so
going to kick his ass when we get out of this
.

One of the Skin Slicers took a step forward and snapped a fist to his chest. “Prince Varrin. You must accompany us to the bridge.”

“For the sake of my pride, please tell me you ran into us accidentally,” Varrin said, dropping his hand from Eris’s mouth.

“You must accompany us to the bridge,” the leader repeated.

Varrin raised his eyebrows. “And if I refuse?”

“You are not authorized to refuse.”

“Just how tough
are
these guys?” Eris whispered to Varrin.

“Skin Slicers are the elite imperial guard. I got into a fight with four of them on Bellatrix 7. I was in the med center for a week afterward.”

“You mean that four of them beat
you
?”

“I beat
them
, thank you very much,” Varrin scowled. “But I got three broken ribs and a black eye for my troubles. Not to mention the electric burns.”

The lead Skin Slicer took another step forward. “Will you comply, Prince Varrin, or shall I proceed to use deadly force?”

Varrin did a double take. “Fino’jin, is that you?”

The warrior removed his helmet, revealing a heavily scarred, leathery face. “It’s been a long time, my prince.”

Varrin winced. “Yeah, sorry about skipping out on the wedding. I hope it didn’t make you look bad, being head of the Marriage Escort Squad and all.”

“I am a Skin Slicer. I do my duty to protect the lives and honor of the imperial house,” Fino’jin said.

“Yeah. I remember.” Varrin had a far-off look in his eyes. “You guarded me from the day I was born.”

“Things change.”

“They certainly seem to.”

“So what will it be?” Fino’jin demanded. “You may be a fighting prodigy, Prince Varrin, but even you cannot hope to defeat my entire squadron.”

Eris nudged Varrin. “Maybe we should surrender.”

Varrin looked at her, an inscrutable expression on his face. Then he turned to Fino’jin and said, “You heard the lady. We surrender.” He waved a hand dramatically. “Take us away.”

Fino’jin saluted him sharply. “As my prince commands.”

After being disarmed by the Skin Slicers, Eris and Varrin were marched to the ship’s command deck, which was swarming with uniformed Rakorsians. In the center of the deck stood Kratis, clearly in his element as he barked orders and issued commands to scurrying underlings.

Eris was unceremoniously shoved by one of the Skin Slicers into an empty chair where she was warned, on pain of death, to stay. Varrin was dragged before Kratis, who turned toward him with a smug expression.

“Admiral, sir?” a bridge officer said.

Kratis rounded on his subordinate. “What?” he demanded.

“The Ssrisk have infiltrated the ship at seven different points,” the officer reported. “One team was eliminated, but the rest are still at large.”

“Fino’jin!” Kratis barked at the leader of the Skin Slicers. “Take your squad and track down the traitorous reptiles.”

Fino’jin snapped a fist to his chest and strode from the room, his squad filing out after him.

“Why has the Ssrisk ship not yet been destroyed?” Kratis shouted at the bridge officer.

“Sir, their shields are very powerful,” the officer responded. “If we divert all power to our weapons, we might break through. But that would leave us open to counterattack.”

“Then proceed as you were,” the admiral ordered. “I have what Hroshk wants, and as soon as he figures that out, he will come crawling to me, seeking to renew our alliance.”

Eris recalled the Ssrisk captain’s fearless and unyielding attitude. “Fat chance of that,” she snorted. When Kratis stared at her coldly, eyebrows raised, she added, “What? It’s true! Hroshk is a Ssrisk. Everyone knows that Ssrisk are hard-headed idiots. I bet Hroshk would rather self-destruct his ship than surrender.”

“Remember what I said about not talking?” Varrin grumbled.

“I’ll speak if I want to!”

Kratis watched them with a calculating eye. “I must say, Prince Varrin, you do pick the most fascinating travel companions. The girl is very … entertaining.”

“Get bent,” Eris snarled.

“Didn’t we
just
go over this?” Varrin snapped. “Don’t talk to him! You’ll only get yourself into trouble when he provokes you into saying something
else
you shouldn’t.”

Eris glowered at him but said nothing.

Kratis seemed intrigued by the exchange. “This is very interesting,” he mused. “I would never have thought it possible, my prince, but it seems to me that you care about this terrestrial.” He spat out the word
care
as if he had sullied himself by speaking it.

“Going a bit senile, are you, Admiral?” Varrin inquired.

Kratis frowned. “Insults will not misdirect me. I see how quick you are to defend her.”

“She owes me money.”

“Nor will humor.” Kratis cocked his head to the side, his eyes narrowing. “I was planning to simply kill the terrestrial, but I’ve just thought of an intriguing way to make things far more interesting.”

Varrin glanced at Eris. “Do you see now why I told you not to talk?”

“I am going to give you a choice, my prince,” Kratis announced. He strode over to Eris and grasped her arm. She let out a pained gasp, and Varrin’s expression hardened.

“Option one,” Kratis continued. “I honor my agreement with the Ssrisk and let Hroshk have the girl. You, my prince, are locked away in the smallest cell I can find and transported back to Rakor, where I will do everything in my power to see you executed for treason.”

“Somehow I’m not loving that plan,” Varrin said. “Second choice?”

“Option two: I kill the girl and let you go free. The choice is yours,” Kratis said, releasing Eris.

“Free?” she blinked, rubbing her arm. “As in … you’ll just let him fly away?”

“Precisely,” the admiral said. “At the cost of your life, Prince Varrin will gain his freedom. If my suspicions are correct, this will be a very entertaining decision to watch.”

Eris looked at Varrin for a reaction, but his face was impassive.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” she snapped at Kratis. “I thought the reason you came here was to capture him!”
This is like some demented alien game show—pick the right door, win a million dollars. Except in this game, either way I lose. And Varrin chooses the door.

“Wrong,” Kratis said. “I am supposed to capture the weak, traitorous prince who abandoned his father, his Empire, and the ways of his people.”

This is the same twisted logic Grashk used on me,
Eris thought,
when he stopped Tarsis from torturing me because I stood up to him.

“If Prince Varrin chooses the second option,” Kratis said, “and sends you to your death, it will tell me three things. One, despite his treachery, he is still a Rakorsian at heart. Two, he still possesses the Rakorsian resolve to survive at any cost. And three, he has not fallen so low as to conspire with terrestrials as he sadly appears to have done.”

“Well, that’s stupid,” Eris said. “You’re insane. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that your entire species is crazy! Does no one in outer space have a shred of decency?” She glanced at Varrin, who was still suspiciously silent. “Would you say something? Back me up here.”

“The prince has not responded because he is still thinking,” Kratis sneered. “Something which terrestrials are obviously not very fond of.”

“Not very fond of?” Eris cried. “Seriously? But what about the part you’re not saying? You’ll let him go free, sure, but then you’ll take off after him the moment he’s had a head start. This whole thing is just a sick game for your amusement!”

“Manipulating life and death is a noble tradition on Rakor.”

“If all Rakorsians are as horrid as you, no wonder Varrin left!”

“Ha!” Kratis sneered. “Did he not tell you? Prince Varrin left Rakor to escape an arranged marriage. The physical appearance of his fiancée offended his delicate tastes, and when his father refused to call off the wedding, he fled.”

“Yeah, well, see, I knew that.” Eris glanced at Varrin, but he was staring blankly ahead. “Anyway, that’s not the point. My point is that Varrin isn’t like the rest of you. He pretends to be a ruthless mercenary, but at heart he’s a decent human be—I mean, Rakorsian.”

The admiral chortled. “Quite a speech, terrestrial. You certainly have a lot of faith in the prince’s conscience.”

“I do!” Eris said. “He’s not going to let you win this little game. Varrin would never sacrifice me to save himself, not after everything we’ve been through!”

“Let’s put that theory to the test, shall we?” Kratis smirked. “What will it be, my prince? Spare the girl and doom yourself, or sacrifice the girl to save your own hide?”

Varrin turned his head slowly to look at the admiral.

We’ve been through too much for him to betray me again,
Eris thought with certainty.
He’s going to do the right thing. I just know it.

“Prince Varrin, what is your choice?” Kratis demanded eagerly. “What fate will you bring upon yourself and your precious little terrestrial? Speak!”

Even the officers engaged in attacking the Ssrisk cruiser paused from their duties to listen to his response. Every eye was on Varrin.

Staring straight into Eris’s hopeful eyes, he said, “I think … that I’m going to have to go with option two.”

34

“D
amn it, Varrin!” Eris shrieked after a moment of stunned silence. “What the hell are you playing at?” She searched his face desperately for some sign he was lying, deceiving Kratis in order to turn events to their advantage. But all she saw in his gray eyes was steely resolve.